How to distinguish real alcohol from fake

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Lifehacker tells what to look for in order not to get poisoned and not suffer from a hangover.

Counterfeit alcohol can contain life-threatening substances in varying proportions. In order not to pay with health, when choosing alcohol, use several rules from Rospotrebnadzor Recommendations of Rospotrebnadzor for the purchase of alcoholic beverages.

What to look for in order not to buy a fake

1. Place of purchase

No questionable stalls and markets, and even more so hand-held or online purchases. The store should be located in a building that is associated with a land plot, that is, kiosks and other temporary buildings - not right away.

Also, the store must have a license for the right to retail alcohol. This document can be found on the information stand in the sales area. If there is no license, look for the store in the list of licensees on the website of the Unified Social Portal of the Alcohol Market.

2. Price

The minimum prices for the sale of spirits - vodka, brandy, cognac and other alcohol with a strength above 28% are established by the state Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated April 4, 2017 No. 57n “On Amending the Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 58n dated May 11, 2016 "On the establishment of prices not lower than which purchases (excluding imports), supplies (excluding exports) and retail sale of alcoholic beverages with a strength of over 28 percent are carried out." This means that the price for half a liter of vodka or alcoholic beverages simply cannot be less than 205 rubles, and the same volume of cognac will not be sold for less than 371 rubles.

It is also helpful to see the average price per bottle of a particular brand of drink. This can be done, for example, on the website of the Bristol retail chain or through the Foodil service. If you see a crazy discount on a product, you should think about its quality.

3. Appearance of the bottle

If the counterfeiters made their own bottles, they can be very different from the original ones. For example, the shape of the shoulders can be smoothed out, while the real one will have clear edges.

In order not to be mistaken, before buying, go to the sites indicated above and check what the original bottle looks like, and then compare the photo with the product in the store. Also check the embossed lettering on the sides of the bottle and the bottom. On fakes, they can be blurry and unreadable, or absent altogether.

If the counterfeit supplier does not produce bottles, but buys used original bottles, the fake can be distinguished by the cork and film on the neck.

In original bottles, the film is stretched perfectly, without folds and protrusions, the inscriptions on it are easy to read and are located evenly. If there are any flaws on the film, connector or lid, such as uneven edges or bulges, this is a reason to be on your guard.

The cap on the bottle must not rotate. The same with the safety ring: if it turns with the cap instead of breaking, leave the bottle in the store.

4. Information on the label

First of all, check if the label is evenly pasted, for tears and wrinkles. If everything is clear, see the information. The label should contain the following Rospotrebnadzor Recommendations for the purchase of alcoholic beverages:

• Name of production.
• Volume and strength as a percentage.
• Composition.
• Mass concentration of sugar, if any.
• Country of origin and location of manufacture.
• Information on contraindications and dangers of use.
• Expiry date, if any.
• The date of bottling is on the label on either side, on the bottle itself or on the cap on the neck.

If you buy imported alcohol, the Russian counter-label must contain all the information listed above, which coincides with the front one.

5. Excise stamp

The excise stamp is printed on special paper with colored fibers, all numbers and codes on it are clear, clearly visible and easy to read. The stamp must be glued absolutely evenly.

You can check the brand through the Anti-Counterfeit Alco application from the Unified Social Portal of the Alcohol Market. Download it and use it directly in the store.

How to recognize a fake if a bottle has already been opened

The last line of verification is the quality of the product itself. There are some signs by which you can identify low-quality alcohol, but if you do not have experience in tasting, the risk of error is very high.

In appearance

Counterfeit alcohol can be identified visually. Strong drinks must be homogeneous. If the liquid in the bottle is stratified, this should be alarming.

As for drips on the walls of the glass, this is found in wines and cognacs and has nothing to do with the quality of the drink. These, as they are also called, "cognac legs" indicate the density of the drink and depend on the percentage of alcohol, the amount of residual sugar in the wines and aging in the barrel or on the lees.

Does not indicate a fake and the color of the wine: it depends on the grape varieties and production technology.

By smell

It is rather difficult to identify counterfeit wine by smell. Sergei says that some bottles contain “cork disease”. During the processing of the bark to make the cork, a chemical compound can form, which gets inside the bottle and spoils the drink.

Sergey Popov

If the base of the cork that touches the wine smells of wet cardboard, rotten wood, or wet autumn leaves, the wine will not be enjoyable. However, this is a natural defect and it is difficult to get poisoned with such a drink.

Other aromas of wine, even not very pleasant, cannot serve as a sign of counterfeit.

Sergey Popov

The wine can smell like gasoline or burnt rubber - this is a characteristic of the "Riesling" variety from some countries. And dry wines from the Gewurztraminer or Torrontes varieties often have notes of rose, apricot, peony, nutmeg and other shades. And this does not mean that flavors have been added to the wine.

If you do not like the aroma of wine, Sergey advises to find the characteristics of the variety on the Internet. Maybe it should smell like that.

To understand the aroma of strong alcohol, you can grind it in your palms: the alcohol will evaporate, leaving the notes of the drink itself. If the smell is chemical, this should alert you. But do not confuse foreign aromas with the smell of alcohol - this is a natural component of the drink and does not indicate a fake.

Taste

Sergey claims that it will be difficult for an ordinary consumer without tasting experience to distinguish a fake from the original.

Sergey Popov

If you add a little more caramel color to the same cognac - this is caramel, it is allowed to add it to cognac and whiskey in certain quantities - then this will improve not only the color, but also the taste. It's like with tea: when it is with sugar, it seems "tasty", since a person does not feel bitterness, viscosity, astringency. And if he drinks it without sugar, the astringency can cause rejection.

Sergey explains that a person can only notice a fake if he has a certain tasting experience. For example, if you are used to drinking one brandy all the time, and then instead of your favorite drink, you got a fake.

But at the same time, a drink of another brand can also cause rejection in him: the taste will seem unpleasant. And this does not mean at all that the other cognac is fake and of poor quality, it is just that it is new for a person.

Thus, only a professional can surely identify a fake by color, smell and taste. However, it is worth paying for expensive high-quality alcohol, if only because you are not so at risk of poisoning.

To create fake drinks, low quality ethyl alcohol is used with a high content of fusel oils and aldehydes, which will reward you with headaches and a wild hangover. But even this is not the worst thing. It is much worse if the drink contains a high content of methyl alcohol.

What is the danger of methyl alcohol and can it be recognized

Methyl alcohol Methyl alcohol poisoning diagnostics: possibilities and prospects - this is a toxic substance, in case of poisoning with which one can partially or completely lose sight due to irreversible atrophy of the optic nerve, earn pneumonia, acute hepatic or renal failure. In the worst case - to die on the first or second day after the libation.

For poisoning, only 5-10 ml of a 40% solution of methanol is enough, and for a lethal outcome - 15-30 ml.

Despite the statements on the Internet, it is almost impossible to distinguish methyl alcohol from ethyl alcohol at home. So, you can often hear that when a drink with methanol is ignited, the flame will have a green tint. However, in one YouTube video, this method gave absolutely no results.

At the same time, there is not a single real confirmation that this or other methods really work.

How to understand that you are poisoned with methyl alcohol, and what to do

Poisoning symptoms may appear within 40 minutes to 72 hours after taking methyl alcohol.

With a mild degree of poisoning, it is easy to confuse them with an ordinary hangover: intoxication is replaced by nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, sometimes fog in front of the eyes or flashing flies. Dizziness, weakness, depression of consciousness, palpitations may be present.

In the case of moderate severity, vision deteriorates over several days until it completely disappears. Severe cases are characterized by acute abdominal pain, dilated pupil, sharp agitation, convulsions with loss of consciousness, impaired breathing and cardiac activity.

It is better not to assess your condition on your own and if you have abdominal pain or visual impairment, immediately call an ambulance.